The Train to Silverton (07-29-17)

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad scenic trip was just what Paul needed after a long day behind the wheel of the truck.
These engines are still coal fired, steam operated and many of the rail cars were built in the 1800s.








  We chose to ride in Yankee Girl, a 21+ car with first class accommodations, originally built in 1880. We were constantly offered beverages, and Paul even enjoyed a Margarita.











We soon left the city of Durango behind, and followed along the Animas River.

Each car had a private viewing deck and with the morning weather being absolutely perfect, Paul and I spent a fair amount of time on the back deck.

With this as our view, it wasn’t long before we realized the benefit of being the caboose!

Mining has been going on in the Silverton area since 1873. In fact, 4 million ounces of gold and 21 million ounces of silver have been mined in just this small area.

There are so many metals in the water that the rocks have turned orange.












The train route originally opened in 1882 to transport gold and silver ore down the mountain. It has run continuously since then, although now it transports tourists.












We stopped several times along the way- sometimes to pick up backpackers, and sometimes to take on more water.  Usually the brakeman would have to stand behind the train and watch for any issues.  We were stopped in the middle of the track (but then, only this company uses the track so, I guess its unlikely that another train would come along).
When the train conductor blew the whistle to signal he was ready to leave, the brakeman would tip his hat to acknowledge it.




Traveling at an average of 16 mph for the 3.5 hour trip, many people elect to take the train in one direction and a bus in the other.  We chose to take the train both ways.



Once we arrived in Silverton we headed (again) to the Handlebar Saloon.  We had heard that unless you pick a restaurant fast, you could spend most of your time in Silverton waiting for food.  We didn’t realize that our particular trip spent less than an hour and a half in Silverton, so we didn’t get to see as much of the town as we would have liked.  Oh well.  We did each manage to find a T-shirt we liked.

Headed back down the mountain, we couldn’t dodge the raindrops and Paul and I were ecstatic that we had chosen indoor accommodations. These poor people spent a lot of their time huddled in the middle of the car .

In our car we had a guide who not only served us food and beverages, but told us a little history about the train and the area, and was also really good about letting us know when to get our cameras out, and where we should point them!








As a side note, I have identified  more varieties of hummingbirds.

These two males are Rufous-  one of the most aggressive varieties- and one of the more colorful!








This guy is a Broad-tailed Hummingbird:





This is the rarest hummingbird I have seen so far:

Just kidding, obviously-  I saw this picture on Facebook.  What is really funny though is that at our campground, most people have hummingbird feeders because there are so many birds in the area.  A woman stopped by and told me that people were bringing their feeders in at night because a mama black bear and her 3 cubs have been coming into the campground and raiding the feeders.  Unfortunately they damage anything gets in their way.

So, we took ours in at night.

Silverton, CO–The First Time (07-29-17)

We finally left New Mexico behind and settled in for a few days in the Durango area of Colorado.

We have only briefly been here before, and we are always asked if we “took the train”.  Well at long last, we can say we did.  But that’s getting ahead of myself.

The first thing we did was hike. If you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s my theme for this summer.  It’s been way too long since we did some decent hiking, and I have missed it.

This trail followed Junction Creek for quite a while before making a run up the side of a hill. Our destination was Gudy’s Rest.

Gudy Gaskill worked tirelessly for many years, trying to make her dream of a hiking trail that traversed the state of Colorado a reality.  After 25 years of persistence, the first spikes were laid for the 486 mile Colorado Trail in 1987.

This spot was one of her favorite places to come when she needed to think.  We hiked 8 miles round trip, with 1100 ft of elevation gain to reach it.  Lest we feel too proud of ourselves, we met a couple who were just finishing the last 4 miles of the entire 486 mile trail.  It took them 2 months.

Hiking done, we made plans to spend the following day exploring in the truck.  Our goal was to take the Alpine Loop, a scenic byway, drive through the town of Silverton and head on up to the small town of Ouray.

The road started out great- it was dirt, but easy to navigate.  We were rewarded with picturesque views and lots of old mining sites with relics (and actually, there are some current mining operations).

The road was quite busy, and at least 90% of the vehicles we encountered were Jeeps.  Made us wish we had ours.

Eventually the road got much rougher, and narrower, and we really wished we had our Jeep!

And then, we decided we weren’t going to make it.  Even if we could survive the road, it was taking too long, and in our huge truck, it just wasn’t fun.  So we turned around and took the paved road!

It was still quite scenic and we stopped at all the pull offs to take pictures of the views.

Just because it was paved, doesn’t mean it was easy! There are tons of tight curves, lots of traffic, and steep drop offs with no guardrails.  I kept my eyes closed a lot of the time.

Finally, surrounded by mountain peaks, the small town of Silverton came into view. 

It wasn’t long before we were seated at the Handlebar Saloon, waiting for our lunch to arrive.

Although we chose the restaurant at least in part because it wasn’t that many years ago that Paul was sporting his own handlebar mustache, the food was actually quite good!

Once lunch was finished it was time to hit the road again…you know…the one that was carved into the side of the mountain.

By this time, it was already getting late in the day, so once we got to Ouray, we didn’t have much time to do anything.

We wanted to at least stretch our legs so we paid a few bucks to take the short hike to Box Canyon. This waterfall was created when the creek eroded a narrow and deep path through the limestone.

After a mile or so of hiking, it was time to get back in the truck and head down the hill before it got dark.